Correggio, 'Head of an Angel', probably about 1522

These are fresco fragments from Correggio’s Coronation of the Virgin, which once decorated the apse of the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista in Parma. S. Giovanni Evangelista had only recently been built when Correggio arrived in the city towards the end of the 1510s. He painted a series of frescoes to decorate the church in the first half of the 1520s. It was a huge job, far bigger than anything he had previously attempted, and a step towards his later project of decorating Parma Cathedral itself.

The apse fresco depicted Christ crowning the Virgin Mary in heaven, surrounded by the evangelists and doctors of the church, and little angels known as putti. Christ and the Virgin were seated beneath a flowering garden pergola, which revealed that the scene was set in paradise. Against a golden radiance, Christ crowned the Virgin with a crown of stars.

Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Benedict sat on the Virgin’s right in the most important position – the church was dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist and it was attached to a Benedictine monastery. Saint John the Baptist, one of the patron saints of Parma, and Saint John, the first Abbot of San Giovanni Evangelista, sat on the Virgin’s left.

The Virgin was the principal patron saint of Parma, and the coronation of the Virgin was depicted on the city’s seal as well as its coinage. A coin of 1526 shows a design particularly close to that of Correggio’s Coronation of the Virgin, suggesting that his fresco had an immediate impact on the city.

After Correggio had completed the apse he painted the nave frieze, frescoes on the arches and piers beneath the dome and a few other smaller areas. In January 1524 he received the final payment for all the work he had done in the church. The apse of the church was destroyed when the choir was enlarged in the 1580s, but the central figures of Correggio’s fresco showing the coronation of the Virgin were saved and are in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma. A replica of Correggio’s fresco was painted in 1587 by Cesare Aretusi in the new apse of S. Giovanni Evangelista.

The National Gallery also owns two groups of heads copied before 1587 from Correggio’s Coronation of the Virgin. They are painted on canvas by an unknown artist. One Group of Heads is a copy of the figures on the right of Correggio’s fresco behind the figure of Saint John the Baptist. His lamb (representing Christ) is held by the infant angel in the copy. The other Group of Heads is a copy of the figures behind John the Evangelist. The central infant angel of that group is a copy of the fresco fragment in the National Gallery’s collection.